Technology to hide a ship’s location previously
available only to the world’s militaries is spreading
fast through the global maritime industry as
governments from Iran to Venezuela — and
the rogue shipping companies they depend on
to move their petroleum products — look for
stealthier ways to circumvent U.S. sanctions.
Windward, a maritime intelligence company
whose data is used by the U.S. government to
investigate sanctions violations, said that since
January 2020 it has detected more than 200
vessels involved in over 350 incidents in which
they appear to have electronically manipulated
their GPS location.